1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the removal of paint from surfaces. More particularly, the invention relates to the fast removal of paint from house siding (and other like surfaces) using a relatively inexpensive and durable rotary abrasive device.
2. Description of Prior Art
The removal of paint from surfaces such as house siding has long been a laborious task performed in the most part by professional exterior decorators due to the time consuming nature of the task. Those dedicated home owners that desire to strip paint from siding must make do with heat equipment which is by its very nature slow, and also liable to scorch the wood uncovered. Alternatively, time may be taken to scrape or sandpaper the paint from the siding. Both the latter methods are extremely slow and the use of sandpaper extremely frustrating due to continual load-up or clogging of the paper requiring its frequent replacement.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,997,820 of Skoog is illustrative of prior art sanding devices. The device uses the outer edge of the wheel to remove the bumps and irregularities encountered. The wheel is bell shaped so that only the edge of the wheel is used to remove the surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,745,719 of Oswald illustrates a floor grinding machine that utilizes durable carbide buttons to prevent uneven wear of the diamond matrix abrasive portions used to grind the floor. This protects the disc holding the diamond matrix from uneven wear.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,023,313 of LeBlanc illustrates the use of tungsten carbide abrading chips on a sanding and stripping device. The entire area of rotation of the grinder is abraded on rotation.
The prior art demonstrates the use of abrasive materials to grind or sand. All the devices discussed above require movement of the abrasive portions of the device over a surface for grinding. The devices do not allow a fast efficient and effective method of removing paint from a surface. They are more concerned with sanding and as such are designed for evenness of the finished surface. The entire surface must be painstakingly covered by the devices. This is especially the case with the Skoog device. The Oswald device utilizes expensive diamond matrices for abrading that makes the device itself expensive. The location of the matrices would also mean that the abrasive regions may be prone to clogging. The requirement for coverage of the entire region would also make their use relatively slow. The LeBlanc device is necessarily heavy and is therefore unsuited to being hand held. In addition, the position of the carbide matrices give no viable way of clearing debris from the blades to prevent clogging.
To enable a paint stripper to conveniently remove paint from siding in a fast, effective method requiring a device that can be hand held and is reasonably priced, is desirable.